Saturday 30 November 2013

Brief Pitch presentation

List of written briefs and proposed deadlines for each


Union Jack Re Design // The Beautiful Meme Crit boards and feedback


The Beautiful Meme came in today to crit our proposed concepts so far, I have produced a series of options to get an idea if any of the concepts I have produced are heading in the right direction or if they need more of a re think.









Crit Feedback

One 

Positive

This is strongest concept out of the options.

Nice simple visual link to britain and the shapes of the current union jack to maintain consistency
Colour scheme works and links all three countries 
The visualisation of the crown and link to Royality is a good link between the countries of the UK

Negative

Design needs to be neatened 
The center cross that is there to initially represent St. Davids flag creates a problem as it comes across as a religious crucifix which is of course linked to the Christian religion and as Modern Britain is formed from nearly all religious backgrounds then this visual element would more than likely offend many non christian member of the UK. Even though this was not my intention and the cross really had no religious meaning at all I can understand the feedback and it was suggested I play around with the design more to make it more obvious that there are no religious connotations involved in this design.

Two

Colour scheme and design instantly reminded them of either the German flag or Chinese flag
Not the concept to continue with

Three

Positive

The use of the 3 national flowers was a unique and appropriate concept

Negative

The clover / shamrock doesnt represent N. Ireland but instead the repulic of Ireland so doesn't actually work at all.
The isuals produced are too complicated and illustrative so don't create a memorable visual for a flag design.

Four

Positive

This is the second strongest concept of the choices provided.
The simplicity of the shapes and link to pysical shape of the countries creates an interesting and unique outcome which could be developed further

Negative

The link to the industrial revolution should be scrapped as it is a bit too specific to use as the foundtion for the Union Jack design.
The design needs to have a set grid to make it neater
It was suggested that perhaps I could try to recreate this concept to scale, so each country is a scaled down version of the actual country.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Union Jack Re Design // Remaining concept development

 National flower concept

This idea originated from a design I produced for a poster brief last year which aimed to produce British weather, The illustrations of the flowers are formed in a similar style that can be found in english rugby union. The simplicity of the shapes allow a clear representation of each flower while trying to not be too complicated.
 Due to the sake that the fewer colours featured on the flag, the better, it would be beneficial to use only 2 or three colours, therefore sticking with my original idea of using red and white as they are the common colours of the three countries.
The blue incorporated still makes the flag appear to have Scottish themes.


I tried a couple of varations incorporating the actual 'logo' that I produced for the first concept, this is a basic layout change just to cover the various options, however if I decide to follow these layouts I will more than likely replace the logo with the crown of the monarchy which would help combine the three flowers.
 



Below is the design i want to submit as one of my concepts, i have aimed to incorporated the crosses which are featured on each countries individual flag as well as. I then wanted to add the rings which were incorporated to visualise the connection between the 3 countries and their individual role in the Union.


Country Shapes

The next concept follows using the physical shape of the 3 countries, through experimenting with these shapes i thought it would be a good opportunity to link an additional message into the flag which not just represents the Union but also visualises the link between the UK and the Industrial revolution.

My aim was to take these shapes and present them in a way that both creates an obvious shape of the UK while also looking like a factory, which highlights the importance of the UK in the advancement of industry and technology.



 i recieved the feedback from peers that the initial design actually looks quite like a gun, which is not an area which I even though about until some body mentioned it. Obviously this is not a visual message that i want to present.


By altering the shape of the original I think It now creates a more consistent representation of both the shape of the uk as well as the link to the industrial revolution. 


As I am not 100% confident with the layout of the design I have produced, I have produced a few more options to give a little variety when presenting it in the crit.





Saturday 23 November 2013

Union Jack Re Design // Concept 1 development

 My first concept is based around the 3 individual designs that are featured on each countries St. flags, 

St. George
St. David 
St. Patrick 

My aim is to apply the rules of branding and logo design to represent Britain as a modern brand. By using the shapes of each individual st. flag it will allow me to form some sort of recognisable shape that hopefully still links to traditional Britain themes while also showing the modernisation and progress of the Union.

The colour scheme originally chosen for this concept is based around the 4 colours found on the St. Flags, Red, White, Yellow and Black. However when I was playing around with the physical layout of the flag, the colour scheme cause it to have quite a Nazi-esque outcome which is followed with some negative connotations as you can expect so this really wouldn't be a good option however below are some variations I have produced to get a brief idea of the kind of shapes I am aiming for.




Below are the 3 individual shapes that I would like to combine to create Britains new 'Logo' I think having a clean simplified design would be best to show Britain's link to traditional but also advancements in modernity as well as versatility of cultures.


I continued to experiment with the layout and colour scheme, as more red is used for the background it kind of takes away from the right wing style of visuals and instead reminds me of a Ferrari style of brand, which again isn't a British representation, so at this stage I believe most of the British feel of this flag will stem from the chosen colour scheme.




I eventually got to the stage below, where I have produced a combination of the 3 individual shapes that I feel represent the modernised yet traditional Britain that I was aiming to represent. By reducing the scale of the visual element and introducing the circular element i feel it completes the link between the 3 countries and shows precise, clear and straight forward future for Great Britain.


However I still don't feel 100% confident that a flag this simple would please every person of the UK but I feel it is un offensive and represents all elements of the UK equally.



To make the whole flag come together i felt that some visual form that clearly links all countries in the Union together. This is when I decided to try adding a visual element which represents the monarchy and royal family which is one of the most recognised features of Britain.


Just for the sake of variation I then created a few alternate options just in case the 'logo' created is not received as well as I hope when The Beautiful Meme come in on the 25th to crit. 



Below are the 3 options for this concept that I will take to the crit, at the moment I feel this is my strongest visual concept, but i feel that what ever is produced there will always be some negative reactions as there is such a huge audience that any changes to the current flag would more than likely cause up roar.




Visualising Sound // Final Concept boards



Monday 18 November 2013

Dr.Me - Flag Exhibition Brief

This brief was set by the Studio Dr. ME , they came in and did a work shop with us and the aim of this brief is to simply produce a flag design with a partner that will be produced and exhibited in an exhibition in Manchester set up by Dr .ME in December.

I was coupled with Chris Shuttleworth and as we had to produce the entire design in 4 hours we made sure we worked quickly and efficiently and made sure we made fast but informed decisions







We sat and went through different possible concepts we decided we should try and visualise a part of our personalities so that the flag represents our interests. There was a few different topics that we could have followed but we eventually decided to base the flag on our individual favorite and least favorite animals.

At this stage we then had to come up with how we would present the visuals on the flag, we really wanted to use a technique of image making that we had not used before as well as a style that would stand out and look unique on a printed flag.

There were no rules in that sense we could use any form of imagery we wanted, including photography, so we decided this would be an interesting way of representing our concept.


We set off on the task of deciding all our favorite and least favorite animals and once that was complete we visited the library to collect and photocopy images of these animals from wildlife and insect books.

Cutting them out and scanning them in creates a really nice effect which I have always wanted to utilise in a design.






After talking to the Dr.Me guys they re inforced our concept and suggested we made mutant animals out of the scans which we both agreed would be an interesting and visually amusing idea.



 
So I took on the challenge of creating the mutants while Chris took the remaining images onto Photoshop   and started to neaten them up and apply them to a flag layout.




Once all the images were completed we then sat down together and started deciding on how we would layout the images to both look aesthetically pleasing as well as representing a 'good animal' side and a 'bad animal' side.

As we worked we realised that some of the scans we had chosen were missing legs or other limbs so we decided that as it was a quite comical piece we should add extra illustrations or images to the existing scans to give the animals some form of personality and individualism.

 Completed design 
 





Once we were happy with the layout and the final design, our next challenge was to get it produced. A dutch company to get it printed, so that is what we have used and the result we were quite pleased with, the quality it has been produced is pretty impressive, and the photos and scans we have used have printed clearly.




 
Produced flag


More high quality photos to come.